The Bad and the Ugly...

Because there was no Good. I tried like anything to think of a witty title or something with a silver lining, but for the life of me I just couldn't. Rutgers just simply had everything go wrong in tonight's 85-64 drubbing at the hands of West Virginia. There was really nothing positive about this one. I can go back and find at least one, solid positive in every loss, except for this one.

Rutgers lost the battle getting to the line 37-28 in favor of WVU. And when they did get to the line, WVU won that battle as well puring in 28 points from the line while Rutgers registered 12. Some quick math can tell you that Rutgers shot 48 percent from the line. Forty-eight percent. That is so bad I had to suspend the rules of grammar and make it an incomplete sentence. Those are 16 points that Rutgers simply gave away, and furthermore those could have been 16 points scored with the clock stopped which is something you desperately need to when you put yourself in a 20 something point hole.

The energy was just pathetic. Nothing exemplified it more than a steal at halfcourt by Bryant of West Virginia. Gil inbounded the ball to Seagears who casually started dribbling in place while looking at the bench to get instructions from Rice. Bryant raced up to Seagears from the three point arc, stole the ball from Seagears and had an easy layup on the other end. The ball was stolen again by the WVU center Kilicli from Dane Miller (he will get a full entry later on because I need to calm down first) for an easy two. Those were only 2 of the 15 Rutgers turnovers. Eli Carter lost the ball out of bounds and the second half and he shrugged, the shoulders came down, and WALKED down the court with his head down.

The defense was horrendous. In addition to fouling 31 times and sending WVU to the line for 37 FT attempts, WVU shot the lights out at a 56% clip, 53% from beyond the arc. The switching was slow, the help defense was awful because none of them got back to their men leaving so many open looks for WVU, mostly for 3.

Speaking of 3 point shooting, I know these kids shoot the ball well. But, they were 4 of 16 from beyond. That, combined with the fact that Carter broke out on a fast break and settled for a (missed) transition 3 point shot, tells me three things. It tells me that when the 3 point shot is not going, the young Knights are going to have a tough time winning games. It also tells me that these young Knights are trying to shoot their way out of deep holes. That is going to work maybe a few times, but that is it. We know this team has the athletes to take the ball to the basket. Rutgers went on a couple 8-0 and 9-0 runs to cut the deficit to 15 or so, but then tried to keep shooting their way out of the hole (which is exactly what Eli Carter was attempting to do in the situation I outlined a couple sentences ago) and WVU got the points right back. The third thing the 4 of 16 3 point shooting tells me is that the Knights are never going to win the fouls battle. You are not going to get to the foul line shooting 3s. WVUs all-world guard Truck Bryant was never afraid to take it into the lane and bang bodies, as evidenced by his 13 FT attempts. Rutgers needs to get to the line and convert.

Whew... that's a lot of steam I just blew off. Thanks for sticking with me. I want to hear what you think about what fell apart tonight? What went wrong? Did anything go right?